1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to telephone equipment and more specifically to test apparatus for remotely testing telephone equipment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of fiber optics in telephone networks continues to evolve due to, among other things, its inherent high reliability to superimpose a large number of telephone communication on a single fiber and its inherent lack of susceptibility to electromagnetic noise. It is believed that fiber optics will eventually replace conductive wires that heretofore have been utilized to connect telephone equipment of one or more subscribers to the telephone network. Until that time, however, there remains a need to utilize the conductive wires and the telephone equipment adapted to work with signals transmitted over such wires.
Prior to the evolution of fiber optics in telephone networks, testing of telephone equipment of one or more subscribers could be conducted remotely from a switching network. However, as the use of fiber optics in telephone networks evolved, the ability to perform remote testing has been affected because of the mixed use of fiber optics and conductive wires.
Until fiber optics replace the conductive wires and the telephone equipment of one or more subscribers it will be necessary and/or desirable to maintain or improve the testability of the conductive wires and the telephone equipment connected thereto. Preferably, the existing conductive wires could be utilized thus protecting the investment in existing testing infrastructure.
Heretofore, measurements of the conductive wire network, including telephone equipment, of a subscriber was enabled by a remote testing device placed adjacent the telephone equipment of the subscriber for measuring a number of parameters concerning the condition of the conductive wires and the telephone equipment. The problem with these prior art measurement systems is the absence of relays and switches necessary for the test equipment to gain unimpeded access to the conductive wires and telephone equipment of the subscriber. Another problem with these prior art systems is they require a separate communications channel to transmit the results of the test back to a central location for analysis. For example, previous systems have utilized a public switched telephone network voice channel for communication using dial-up modem technology. This of course diminishes revenue generating capacity by using up one of the voice channels.
In another methodology, test equipment is embedded in a maintenance and operations channel of the fiber optic system. This, however, requires additional equipment at a central location to extract the information from the maintenance and operations channel. Moreover, many of these fiber optic systems cannot present the information to existing test equipment, thus requiring a stand alone computer terminal to view the results.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for testing the conductive wires and telephone equipment of a remote subscriber utilizing existing test equipment. It is object of the present invention to utilize the available communications channels to transmit test signals to the remote testing devices and to receive test results back therefrom. It is an object of the present invention to provide test capability for remote multiplexer systems that do not have access relays installed.